Meryl Streep Blasts Walt Disney at National Board of Review Dinner

[lilclerk]

Where does all this talk of Walt being anti-Semitic come from?

Here's an interesting article: http://skeptoid.com/blog/2013/07/04/was-walt-disney-an-anti-semite/

 

[The Empress Lilly]

She read a letter that his company wrote in 1938 to an aspiring female animator. It included the line, “Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that task is performed entirely by young men.”

A letter from 1938 about women in the workplace? On top of all his other achievements, Walt would've been the greatest social thinker of the 20th century if thirty years before the second feminist wave he had held 21st century ideas about women in the workforce. Move over Simone De Beauvoir.


And no points for Meryl for not picking up the blatant agism in the letter. Not currently fashionable one presumes?
(Of course, like the agism the sexism belongs to the social structure of the day and its rigid career paths, in a different era and different society that had to place different emphases on security and social stability and etc)

 

[Californian Elitist]

I'm done.

Of course you are.

 

[xdan0920]

Of course you are.

Listen. I see what you're going for here. And I'm not going down that road with you. You want to have a fight with someone, find someone else.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Listen. I see what you're going for here. And I'm not going down that road with you. You want to have a fight with someone, find someone else.

Huh? I thought you said you were done? I've literally no clue what you're talking about, sir. Take care.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

A letter from 1938 about women in the workplace?

And shortly afterwords Retta Scott would become the studio's first female animator. Did she bring up this fact?

Is Ben Affleck gonna complain about Walt's view that only women were good enough for ink and paint too?

 

[plaz10]

A couple things before I respond to the above....

1. TWDC should part ways with her immediately. Drop any ties they have to her. They won't of course, because TWDC is now simply DISNEY, and they don't seem to give a rat's behind about Walt or his legacy. Except to exploit it.

No way will they part ways with her. She is starring in Disney's "Into The Woods" later this year. They still need her for a little while longer!

 

[xdan0920]

No way will they part ways with her. She is starring in Disney's "Into The Woods" later this year. They still need her for a little while longer!

I know. That's why I said they wouldn't. But they really should distance themselves from her.

 

[plaz10]

I know. That's why I said they wouldn't. But they really should distance themselves from her.

I was joking to lighten the mood of this quite tense thread.

I agree with you. It makes sense to distance but with her being the most Oscar nominated actress and a very popular actress...I don't see it happening either.

 

[RandomPrincess]

Tacky! She was there to present her friend an award. Some friend, she managed to make it all about her personal agenda.

 

[KeithVH]

Would she have opened her feeble pie hole if Diane was still around? What a pathetic waste of human excrement. If her panties are in such a knot, I don't see her returning her paychecks for associated work. Typical Hollywood attention (yes, I know how it's spelled).

 

[NiarrNDisney]

My husband always used to joke that Disney (as a company) hated women purely based on the fact that a lot of Disney villains are women. It was totally a joke!

It's also funny that Meryl plays the evil witch in Walt Disney's upcoming film "Into the Woods"

 

[alissafalco]

Tacky! She was there to present her friend an award. Some friend, she managed to make it all about her personal agenda.

Yes, exactly! Why didn't she save this selfish agenda speech for when she's promoting her role in her Disney movie. No, she's doing this for her friends movie and role. Some friend, I'd drop her if I was Emma.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Roger Meyers Sr., the gentle genius behind Itchy and Scratchy, loved and cared about almost all the peoples of the world. And he, in turn, was beloved by the world, except in 1938 when he was criticized for his controversial cartoon, "Nazi Supermen Are Our Superiors."

(Why oh why is it impossible to find the right Simpsons clip when you need it?)

 

[olinecoach61]

Who cares what Meryl Streep says? She's irrelevant

 

[xdan0920]

Roger Meyers Sr., the gentle genius behind Itchy and Scratchy, loved and cared about almost all the peoples of the world. And he, in turn, was beloved by the world, except in 1938 when he was criticized for his controversial cartoon, "Nazi Supermen Are Our Superiors."

(Why oh why is it impossible to find the right Simpsons clip when you need it?)

A major source of frustration in my life.

 

[GenerationX]

When I'm researching a topic, where is the first place I go? Celebrities.

 

[xdan0920]

When I'm researching a topic, where is the first place I go? Celebrities.

Their opinions are more relevant. Duh.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

From the first African American animator to work for Walt Disney, Floyd Norman.

http://floydnormancom.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/8/sophies-poor-choice
Sophie's Poor Choice
Two things are required of an actor, and indeed it’s not all that much to ask. They should know their lines and be able to hit their mark. To be sure, the life of an actor is seldom an easy one. The few that are blessed with fame and success should at least be grateful. And, they might be wise to guard unscripted remarks lest they appear foolish.

It would appear a number of people in Hollywood and elsewhere know a good deal about a studio that never employed them. They also seem to be quite knowledgeable about a man they never met. This is to be expected, of course. When it comes to history it appears everybody’s an expert. However, the history we’re currently dealing with is the history of the Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney in particular.

I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but the America of the nineteen thirties and forties is hardly the America we know today. Much has changed, and changed for the better. However, we can’t erase the mistakes of the past nor should we. We already know women were not given the opportunities they deserved back in the thirties. This was not something practiced at Walt Disney Productions alone. This was true of American business in general. Despite that, the women of Disney’s Ink & Paint Department have told me they’ve never had a better job. Were they denied the opportunity to compete with the boys over in the Animation Building? You bet they were. In spite of that, during the war years, young women proved they had what it took to compete with the big boys. Even in the forties, Mary Blair, Retta Scott, Bianca Majolie and Sylvia Holland showed they too had the right stuff. By the fifties, talented young women filled the ranks of Walt’s animation department and their names are too numerous to mention. For example, ever hear the name Phyllis Hurrell? She ran one of Walt Disney’s successful commercial departments at the studio. This was the early days of television and she made a ton of money for the mouse. You probably wouldn’t believe that Uncle Walt had a woman production head back in the fifties, now would you?

Then there was Joe Grant, Dave Detiege, Lou Appet and Ed Solomon. There was Mel levin, Robert and Richard Sherman, and the list goes on and on. Can you guess where I’m going with this? Why were so many talented Jewish writers, song writers and artists employed at the Disney Studio? Did Walt simply not know? Yeah, he probably had no idea. I can also guess he had no idea why the young black man was in his story meetings. And, how did the famous “Hollywood racist” failed to notice Victor Haboush, Tyrus Wong, Dick Ung, Iwao Takamoto, Willie Ito, Ray Aragon and Ron Dias?

To be sure, Walt Disney had his faults like the rest of us. He was not a perfect man nor did we expect him to be. Like most of us, he continued to grow as he moved through life and in time he recognized women could compete alongside men. He knew that talent had no color or ethnicity and he judged people by their ability to do their job and do it well. Walt Disney was a man of his time, but he was determined not to be imprisoned by it. He dreamed of a better world and even had the audacity to try and build it. Hardly an American to be vilified. Walt Disney deserves to be celebrated.Walt Disney was a studio boss not a saint. Yet, in my fifty plus year career he was hands down the best boss I ever had.

Here's a wonderful response from The Walt Disney Family Museum via Twitter

Hey @officialMStreep! Want the real truth about Walt Disney? Visit the museum and we'll give you a tour. Or, you know... Google it.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

A transcript of the speech in question.
http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/read-meryl-streeps-nbr-speech-in-its-entirety.html

[Streep walks on stage wearing one of the "Prize Winner" hats from Nebraska, which had been scattered on the tables as promo items] What? Oh? Oh. Okay. [Takes off hat] I'm not the prize winner. It's so weird! This is a very late night, and we have Spike Jonze — twice — coming up, so I want to say to you, I have a short, sweet, kind of funny version of this tribute to Emma Thompson, and I have the long, bitter, more truthful version, so I would like a vote — and I'm serious! I'm happy to do just the short one. I'd love to do the long one. [Lots of applause, one audience member hollers, "Go for it!"] Anybody want to leave? Go now. I guess that's the long one.

Some of [Walt Disney's] associates reported that Walt Disney didn't really like women. Ward Kimball, who was one of his chief animators, one of the original "Nine Old Men," creator of the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Jiminy Cricket, said of Disney, "He didn't trust women, or cats." And there is a piece of received wisdom that says that the most creative people are often odd, or irritating, eccentric, damaged, difficult. That along with enormous creativity comes certain deficits in humanity, or decency. We are familiar with this trope in our business. Mozart, Van Gogh, Tarantino, Eminem ... Ezra Pound said, "I have not met anyone worth a damn who was not irascible." Well, I have — Emma Thompson.

Not only is she not irascible, she's practically a saint. There's something so consoling about that old trope, but Emma makes you want to kill yourself because she's a beautiful artist, she's a writer, she's a thinker, she's a living, acting conscience. Emma considers carefully what the she is putting out into the culture! Emma thinks, "Is this helpful?" Not, "Will it build my brand?" Not, "Will it give me billions?" Not, "Does this express me? Me! Me! My unique and fabulous self, into all eternity, in every universe, for all time!" That's a phrase from my Disney contract. I'm serious! "Will I get a sequel out of it, or a boat? Or a perfume contract?"

Ezra Pound said, "I have not met anyone worth a damn who was not irascible." Though he would say that because he was supposedly a hideous anti-Semite. But his poetry redeems his soul. Disney, who brought joy, arguably, to billions of people, was perhaps ... or had some racist proclivities. He formed and supported an anti-Semitic industry lobbying group. And he was certainly, on the evidence of his company's policies, a gender bigot. Here's a letter from 1938, stating his company's policy to a young woman named Mary Ford of Arkansas, who had made application to Disney for the training program in cartooning. And I'm going to read it here in Emma's tribute, because I know it will tickle our honoree, as she's also a rabid man-eating feminist like me!

"Dear Miss Ford, your letter of recent date has been received in the inking and painting department for reply. Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that task is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school. The only work open to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink, and then, filling in the tracing on the reverse side with paint according to directions."

When I saw the film, I could just imagine Walt Disney's chagrin at having to cultivate P.L. Travers' favor for the 20 years that it took to secure the rights to her work. It must have killed him to encounter a woman, an equally disdainful and superior creature, a person dismissive of his own considerable gifts and prodigious output and imagination. But when we sit in our relative positions of importance and mutual suspicion, and we cast judgment on each other's work, we're bound to make small mistakes and misconstrue each other's motives.

Which brings me to awards season. Which is really ridiculous. We have made so many beautiful movies this year, and to single out one seems unfair. And yet, it's a great celebration, and I'm so proud to be here, in this group of artists. Nobody can swashbuckle the quick-witted riposte like Emma Thompson. She's a writer. A real writer. And she has a writer's relish for the well-chosen word. But some of the most sublime moments in Saving Mr. Banks are completely wordless. They live in the transitions, where P.L. traverses from her public face to her private space. I'm talking about her relentlessness when she has her verbal dim sum, and then it moves to the relaxation of her brow, when she retreats into the past. It's her stillness. Her attentiveness to her younger self. Her perfect alive-ness. Her girlish alertness. These are qualities that Emma has, as a person. She has real access to her own tenderness, and it's one of the most disarming things about her. She works like a stevedore, she drinks like a bloke, and she's smart and crack and she can be withering in a smack-down of wits, but she leads with her heart. And she knows nothing is more funny than earnestness. So now, "An Ode to Emma, Or What Emma is Owed":

We think the Brits are brittle, they think that we are mush
They are more sentimental, though we do tend to gush
Volcanoes of emotion concealed beneath that lip
Where we are prone to guzzle, they tip the cup and sip
But when eruption bubbles from nowhere near the brain
It's seismic, granite crumbles, the heart overflows like rain
Like lava, all that feeling melts down like Oscar gold
And Emma leaves us reeling, a knockout, truth be told

Ladies and gentlemen, the entirely splendid Emma Thompson.